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A.M. #12: Pittsburgh

Posted Nov 1, 2013
by Aaron Portzline
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The Blue Jackets will not fight fire with fire tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They know they can't. If the neutral zone becomes to Autobahn, the Blue Jackets will head back to Columbus on I-70 licking their wounds.

Coach Todd Richards has talked all week about his club being prepared for the Penguins' knack of chipping pucks out of the neutral zone and onto the sticks of forwards who have slipped behind an unaware defensemen.

The Blue Jackets will try to pin the Penguins in their own zone. They'll try to create scoring chances off the cycle and try to negate the Penguins' ability to create off the rush.

These are contrasting styles, which means these next two nights and six periods should be fun.

"We have to try to establish our game," Richards said. "That's probably the biggest thing, getting in and establishing a forecheck. It's two straight games, six periods, playing against these guys, so you want to come out and establish things right away.

"They have a good idea of what we do, and we have a good idea of what they do. They want to play a really fast game through the neutral zone, which, to me, is really the strength of their team, playing the game north. We'll have compensate for that in some way."

While the Penguins can roll out Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz, the Blue Jackets' best weapon tonight (and possibly Saturday) is goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Bobrovsky has not been great early this season. He wasn't good in Sunday's 4-3 loss to Anaheim.

But in CONSOL Energy Center, he's 3-1-0 with a .934 save percentage and 2.01 goals-against average, all as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Here's Penguins coach Dan Bylsma with a strong quote on Bobrovsky from this morning's skate:

"He's a guy we're familiar with. We're aware of his success in this building. We almost ... playing against the Penguins in this building put him on the map in some regards. He's played some great games here. He was outstanding last year (for Columbus), a huge part of their success. At the end of the year he was really the backbone of their team. This year he's expected to be that again. His numbers aren't quite as daunting as they were in the past. While he's played some really good games for them, I'm a little nervous that getting back in this building will ignite him to be at the level we've seen him play in the past. We're going to try to get as many pucks at him and try to make him uncomfortable and see if we can't break that "Consol Curse" that he's got for us."

Bobrovsky smiled and blinked when these words were passed before him, when his numbers in this building were mentioned.

"It's always great to play against the top guys," Bobrovsky said. "It's a big challenge for me, and I like this challenge. I'm really glad to hear those words (from Bylsma), but today is a new challenge, a new step. Today, every one has forgotten the past. Today is a new day, a new game, a huge challenge for us."

The Blue Jackets will welcome center Derek MacKenzie back into the lineup tonight. He missed Sunday's game with a groin injury, in his absence - along with that of Matt Calvert, Boone Jenner and, for the third period, Brandon Dubinsky -- made the Blue Jackets seem a 55 mph team. Not the 75 mph speedster they've been built to be.

"Those are the guys who provide a lot of that relentless skating and pressure and speed for us," Richards said. "You could see our game slowed down (vs. Anaheim). Getting him back in the lineup ... he pushes guys to be faster. If you're playing with Mac, you better be ready to skate."

Side dishes:

-- LW Mark Letestu, who grew up in the Penguins' organization, will move up to the top 6 tonight, playing with C Dubinsky and RW Cam Atkinson. Michael Chaput will move to left wing to make room for MacKenzie at center on the fourth line.

-- Richards has hinted that Curtis McElhinney could start Saturday's game in Pittsburgh. He's still considering it: "Right now, yeah. But we'll watch this game, see how it goes and make that call after the game."

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